Tag Archives: CSS Sumter

Adm. Semmes gets a home

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Facing a $25K-a-day fine from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the City of Mobile has moved the recently toppled statue of the former U.S. Navy CDR/C.S. Navy ADM/C.S. Army B. Gen., Raphael Semmes, to the city’s museum, where it belongs.

Notably, the museum also holds numerous relics of the commerce raider CSS Alabama, which Semmes helmed to 66 naval victories and one crushing defeat, as well as artifacts from the officer’s own life, including an ornate French-made Houllier-Blanchard revolver I chronicled in the past.

You don’t see these every day. 

Admiral Semmes statue to be shuffled to local museum

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Facing a $25K-a-day fine from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the City of Mobile has decided to move the recently toppled statue of the former U.S. Navy CDR/C.S. Navy ADM/C.S. Army B. Gen., Raphael Semmes, to the city’s museum, where it belongs.

Notably, the museum also holds numerous relics of the commerce raider CSS Alabama, which Semmes helmed to 66 naval victories and one crushing defeat, as well as artifacts from the officer’s own life, including an ornate  French-made Houllier-Blanchard revolver I chronicled in the past.

You don’t see these every day. 

Update: It is still gonna cost the city some big bucks to be woke.

More on the Semmes gun

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Back in June I covered the famous raider CSS Alabama which, under the command of the Pirate of the Confederacy, Capt. (later Admiral/Brig. Gen.) Raphael Semmes, CSN (USN, resigned), captured an amazing 65 prizes and destroyed the side-wheeler gunboat USS Hatteras.

In that piece I gave you a sneak peak of his uber rare Houllier-Blanchard revolver.

Well, I’m back with a little more info on that piece after getting with the city-run History Museum of Mobile.

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Click to big up

The gun is a cap and ball black powder .36 caliber wheelgun held in a rosewood case that holds the handgun and accessories, the metal plate on the lid reads, “Presented to Captain Raphael Semmes, Belsize Park, 14 May 1862.”

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Click to big up

More here in my column at Guns.com